anish author Olga Ravn, 36, made the International Booker shortlist in 2021 with her first book to be translated into English,
, an experimental novel about a partly humanoid space crew. Fans include Max Porter and Mark Haddon; a French critic called it, is her second book to be translated into English. Mixing fiction, essay and poetry, it follows Anna, an isolated young writer navigating pregnancy and motherhood as well as mental illness and the medical system. Ravn spoke from her home in Copenhagen, where she was born and raised.
The novel is candid about maternal ambivalence. Did you worry what your children might make of it when they’re older? Going to teacher-parent conferences did give me a little social anxiety. When the children were very small, it felt like the book would ruin something. But time passes, they don’t really care and you still have to make dinner; thousands and thousands of meals together are so much stronger than one book. I’m really happy I wrote it because the book became a vessel for shame, which meant it wasn’t in my relationship with my children.